IBM z/OS Version 2 Release 3 enhancements

IBM's z/OS® V2.3 operating system delivers innovations
designed to build the highly scalable and highly securable next-generation infrastructure needed.
z/OS V2.3 delivers the performance,
availability, scale, I/O support, and security to provide the infrastructure, on or off premises or
provisioned as-a-service, that allows for instant reacting to business opportunities.

This z/OS V2.3 announcement describes new capabilities designed to support:

New diagnostics are provided to identify creators of user key common storage to simplify
implementations made to mitigate the potential impact of previously announced withdrawal of support
in Software Announcement
A17-0390, dated July 17, 2017. The allocating, obtaining, and changing common areas of virtual storage, such that the storage is in user key (keys 8-15), will not be supported after z/OS V2.3.

A new health check, SLIP trap support, and SMF user key common usage reporting are available on z/OS V2.1 and later.

VSM Health Check ZOSMIGV2R3_NEXT_VSM_USERKEYCOMM is introduced to detect if any user key common storage is used.

New fields are introduced in the Storage and Paging section of the SMF Type 30 record to identify the users of user key common storage.

New entry point IARXLUK4 is introduced for use in a SLIP trap to detect and identify the location of user key common storage usage.

For more details, see APAR OA53355.

OpenSSH CPACF support

New support in IBM z/OS OpenSSH will directly use the Central Processor Assist for
Cryptographic Functions (CPACF) instructions, if present, to implement symmetric ciphers and MAC
algorithms, instead of invoking the Integrated Cryptographic Service Facility (ICSF), which also
uses the CPACF instructions. Circumventing ICSF and invoking CPACF instructions directly provides
improved performance. This support is made available with the PTFs for APAR OA54299 on z/OS V2.2 and z/OS V2.3. Clients that still want to meet the FIPS 140-2 specification with IBM
z/OS OpenSSH will need to continue to select
using ICSF.

NFS Server: Encryption support

An enhancement to the z/OS NFS Server now gives remote users access to data in encrypted sequential extended format data sets. This support complements the policy-enabled enhanced data protection for z/OS data sets introduced last year and is made available on z/OS V2.1, z/OS V2.2, and z/OS V2.3 with the PTFs for APAR OA53223.

Tape support end of life

IBM plans to discontinue delivery of z/OS platform products and service on magnetic tape on July 1, 2018. This fulfills
the statement of direction in Software Announcement A17-0134, dated February 21, 2017.
IBM recommends downloading products and service over the internet. However, if you have a
requirement for physical media, products and service remain available on DVD.

z/OSMF enhancements

z/OS V2.3 z/OSMF is enhanced with many new
functions, listed below, and z/OS V2.2 z/OSMF is
refreshed with some of the previously announced functions for z/OS V2.3 z/OSMF.

The following new functions are added for z/OS V2.3:

z/OSMF server is able to determine if the version of the z/OSMF started
procedure is compatible or not through APAR PI92213.

z/OS data set and file REST service is enhanced by APAR
PI91339 to support:

Directory tree walking and filtering results for list/searching

Use of regular expressions to replace content when editing data sets

Display all volume names for listing multi-volume data set

Specifying "dsntype" when creating data set

APAR PI91339 also ships the PTF for z/OS
V2.2.

z/OSMF is upgraded to use Liberty 17.0.0.3.

With z/OSMF, users can customize the z/OSMF Angel Name with APAR
PI88651.

The z/OSMF Workflows task will support parallel-steps workflow. One or more
automated steps of parallel-steps workflow can run in parallel.

The following z/OS V2.3 z/OSMF functions
will also be rolled back to version 2.2 with APAR PI91120:

A new z/OS Operator Consoles task enables users to work with z/OS console-style system messages, issue system commands, filter and search messages, and so on.

The Workflows task supports performing workflow in remote sysplex.

With the new General Settings task underneath the z/OSMF Settings category, users
can collect z/OSMF diagnostic data and customize z/OSMF headers, footers,
and logos from the z/OSMF panel.

REST Notification services are enhanced to support specifying email addresses as recipients of notifications.

The IBM Digital Sales Center, our national direct marketing organization, can add your name to the mailing list for catalogues of IBM products.

Note: Shipments will begin after the planned availability date.

Trade-marks

RMF is a trade-mark of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

z/OS and IBM are registered trade-marks of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

Microsoft is a trade-mark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

Other company, product, and service names may be trade-marks or service marks of others.

tm Trade-mark owned by International Business Machines Corporation and is used under license by IBM Canada Ltd.

® Registered trade-mark of International Business Machines Corporation and is used under license by IBM Canada Ltd.

(**) Company, product or service name may be a trade-mark or service mark of others.

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